No European defense
Andy Yen often criticizes the mercantile strategy of American tech giants. He also takes a critical look at the European weaknesses facing them. “Even the rare examples of large-scale European or Swiss companies that are often cited are either listed in the United States or have long since moved abroad and have their main points of presence elsewhere,” regrets the Proton director . Why such a European dropout? “Many observers talk about the lack of investment, but I think the real reason lies elsewhere: Europe has never defended its own technology companies. This contrast is obvious to me, who is from Asia (Taiwan), studied in the United States and is now trying to develop a technology company in Europe.”
Andy Yen clarifies his remarks. “China has always defended its own interests, like the United States, and this will be reinforced with the re-election of Donald Trump. On the other hand, Europe continues to cling to an outdated globalist vision. As a result, it is more difficult for a European company to do business in Europe than for our American and Chinese competitors.” The director of Proton notes that the United States has not wanted to regulate its technological monopolies, and that at the same time, China has aggressively defended its internal market to create the space necessary for the emergence of its own technological champions.
Sovereignty sacrificed
For its part, “Europe let Americans enter its markets unhindered, leading to the destruction of the continent’s technology sector. It was a serious miscalculation, because everything becomes technological. We thus see how the German automobile industry is being decimated, because electrification makes the automobile above all a technological product. It is obvious that the Americans and the Chinese will win in this market, because Europe has sacrificed its technological sovereignty on the altar of market opening,” insists Andy Yen.
For the director of Proton, the battle is almost lost on the European side. And it is not the new regulations that will improve the situation. “Europe does not regulate too much, but sometimes focuses on the wrong things, or acts too late. For example, unfair competition from American Big Tech was finally regulated by the European Digital Markets Act, but this regulation arrived twenty years too late. The American giants have become too big to be managed effectively.
“Proton was lucky”
Switzerland is also criticized by Andy Yen. For its lack of regulation of Big Tech, but also on a financial level: “Switzerland is an extraordinarily expensive country, as a result, start-ups are often incapable of being competitive in terms of salary. In order to attract the best talent from around the world, it is essential to be able to provide them with stock options. But current Swiss tax regulations make it extremely difficult to create incentive plans, and this is precisely one of the main drivers of Silicon Valley’s success. For Andy Yen, “Proton was fortunate to manage to get through this difficult milestone, but unless the situation changes, stories like ours will remain the exception rather than the norm…”
Proton has notably been cited as an example in Iran, Russia and other countries led by authoritarian regimes, its products allowing citizens to thwart government censorship. But for Andy Yen, “It makes headlines, but long-term success requires that we win in all markets, not just the ones we conquer by default because no one else has the technology to defeat censorship. From this point of view, we continue to focus on the United States and Western Europe, and we want to be able to win in the field of large technology companies.
Conquest of the United States
Proton is thus in a strategy of conquest. “Just as the Americans exported surveillance capitalism to Switzerland, we are successfully exporting Swiss values of privacy and security to the United States. This is the sustainable competitive advantage of Switzerland and Europe in the 21st century, an advantage that deserves to be defended for future generations,” concludes Andy Yen.
